Perhaps your optometrist has suggested you enhance your lenses with a high-quality, anti-reflective (AR) – sometimes called anti-glare – coating and, perhaps, you had no idea what that meant. Read on, and we’ll highlight some of the benefits for you to consider.

The AR coating is applied to the surface of the lens and reduces the amount of glare that reflects off your lenses. What is glare, you may ask? It is the excessive brightness caused by direct light or reflected light and can occur when sunlight bounces off a reflective surface such as water. Mobile phones, tablets, and computer screens lit by LEDs (light-emitting diode) can also cause glare.

The benefits of AR coating include:

• reducing reflected light, thus allowing increased light to travel through your lenses so visual clarity is increased,
• this increased light also reduces eye strain and your eyes can ‘relax’ while wearing glasses,
• people can see your eyes instead of the glare off your lenses – or an image of themselves,
• the modern coating is designed to resist scratches – some manufacturers offer a scratch warranty on their anti-reflective coatings,
• by reducing exposure to blue light from digital devices and lighting, specialty AR coating combats digital eye strain – that tired, irritated feeling you get in your eyes after looking at a digital screen for a few hours,
• AR coating also help protect your eyes from the sun’s damaging ultra-violet rays and
• it improves night vision.

AR coating has been perfected over the years, with very favourable results. The term ‘coating’ is, in fact, an inaccuracy because the AR coating is fused or ‘baked’ on the lens matrix so, unlike previous anti-glare versions, it doesn’t peel off. It is available on all eyewear lens types – high-index lenses, bifocals, multifocals, progressive lenses, reading glasses, and sunglasses.